Thoughts on Blogging as a Journal

I am not a blogger, journaller and have never used a diary......I might as well just get that out there. Therefore, this process is actually alot harder for me than it is for others. I have just completed a science degree where the majority of content was exam based meaning either right or wrong. Furthermore, there is a right way to do things and a wrong way. Looking back, this was all very logical to me and caused me no distress as I now know my learning style is strongly sensing and sequential.....who knew! However, here I am in my teaching degree where there is no right or wrong, and everything is open to interpretation! That is completely unsettling for me. I don't have my facts. Am I on the right track? I seem to always be asking myself. Not only that, the learning theories seem to cross each others boundaries leaving me completely confused. So, I have had to drop my old ways of fact finding and logical argument, let my mind go and force myself to think creatively. As I force myself to think about my learning in this course, my thinking is becoming more transparent and the process is becoming easier. I am actually suprised by the length of my blogs but I have to keep telling myself.......It is ok if somebody has a different perspective to me, nobody's wrong here..... right? As a future teacher, this has been valuable learning for me.     

Plus: I would encourage students to blog because it is important to teach them to reflect. Importantly, blogging a journal  teaches students to analyse and consider different ways to do things to get better results. These skills are lifelong and can be transferred into other areas of student lives for personal development. Continual blogging captures student growth over time and could be a confidence builder in their learning. Furthermore, the author of the blog has complete control of the content and the ability to link with other blogs allows for sharing of learning experiences and perspectives.

Scaffolding the reflections is a great way to help get them started and to reassure those who, like me, are always wondering if they are doing things right. Blogging builds knowledge about oneself which demonstrates the theory of constructivism. This new knowledge which has been sorted in the reflection is then added to or replaces existing schema. Connectivism is also visible as bloggers are able to follow sites and other bloggers journeys at a click of the mouse to develop a learning pipeline. Diversity is well catered for as pictures, voices, videos and text can be utilised by students in whatever learning preferences. In an eLearning context, teachers and students can interact on blogs regardless of distance and time, taking student interaction beyond the classroom.

Minus:

Interesting: Blogs are so diverse in there presentation which should reflect individual personalities and styles. No two blogs are ever meant to be the same. So again, there are no right or wrong ways to blog.